India takes top spot in new mobile connections: Ericsson

India has come out on top globally in terms of mobile subscriber growth, with a net addition of over 13 million customers in July-September of 2015, an Ericsson Mobility report says.

The report found that every second, a mobile connection got activated in India.

"Global mobile subscriptions are growing around 5 per cent year-on-year. India grew the most in terms of net additions during the quarter (a gain of 13 million), followed by China (7 million), the US (6 million), Myanmar (5 million), and Nigeria (4 million)," the report by the telecom gear maker said.

The total number of mobile subscriptions during the said period stood at around 7.3 billion across the world, including 87 million new subscriptions.

Ericsson used various data sources for the report and verified the same with its internal assessment.

According to the global study, smartphones accounted for close to 75 per cent of all mobile phones sold in the said quarter, compared with around 70 per cent a year ago.

"By 2016, the number of smartphone subscription will surpass those for basic phones. Some 85 per cent of all subscriptions will be for mobile broadband by the end of 2021," the report predicted.

The study found that mobile Internet traffic has risen globally by 63 per cent year-on-year and expects 11 times growth in smartphone traffic between 2015 and 2021.

"The growth in mobile data traffic is due to both the rising number of smartphone subscriptions, in particular for LTE smartphones, and increasing data consumption per subscriber. This is forecast to result in a 10-fold increase in total traffic for all devices by the end of 2021," the report added.

On mobile platforms or operating systems, the study found that a majority of Android and Apple iOS users are loyal, but the same is not the case with Windows mobile phone users.

"Some 82 per cent of Android users and 73 per cent of iOS users selected a smartphone with the same operating system while switching to a new device. This is not the case for Windows phone users - around 60 per cent switched to Android and 15 per cent to iOS smartphones," the report said.

The Ericsson study found out an increase in 4G subscriptions at around 850 million, with approximately 120 million addition in the September quarter. The report predicted that 5G subscription uptake expected to be faster than 4G as it also includes connection for Internet of Things (IoT).

Under IoT, devices and equipment will be connected with the Internet for automatic processes and the owner will be able to control the function from a distant location using a mobile phone or a computer.